PRESS

The Defector - Issue #36 November '07

Squalora Interview

NAMES, AGES, WHERE YOU'RE FROM, OTHER BANDS (past and present) AND HOW LONG YOU'VE LIVED IN PORTLAND.

Dan- My name is Dan Lawlor, 26 years old. I've lived in Portland for a little over a year now. I moved from Montana where I spent time in 3 different bands over the years, starting with the Miscreants to Ass-End Offend, a short time as Nazgul and now, Squalora.

Matt- Matt Svendsen, 28, middle of nowhere, Montana. Bands: Venal I.V. (straight-edge h.c.), The Anti Difrancos (Anarcho-feminist punx), Lazerblast, Ass-End Offend and Nazgul.

Tom- My name is Tom Elston and I'm the typical bass player. What with being the most moody, outspoken and having the heaviest equipment.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC?

Matt- A cross between getting stabbed in the ear with a rusty sickle, having an aneurysm while being run over by a gravel truck, and all your favorite hits from the 80's played backwards, full of subliminal messages. We're talkin' spandex, hairspray and leg warmers drenched in fucking blood from stomping on the heads of riot cops in the streets of Portland!

Dan- Or galloping thunder-core punk for short.

HOW IS SQUALORA DIFFERENT THAN ASS END OFFEND, (MUSICALY/LYRICS/APPROACH)?

Tom- Squalora, to me, is just an extension of Ass-End Offend. The three of us played for a number of years together and were pretty much on the same page idea-wise. I mean our lyrical and musical approach is essentially the same and I feel like we're more collaborative now. Plus being a three piece is much easier.

Matt- we're cooler, have better facial hair and prettier fingernails. The lyrics are more majestic and there are more unicorns and wizards in our message.

Dan- Well, I kind of think that Squalora is what AEO would of eventually sounded like had it kept going, but the location changed so Matt, Tom and I continued to write new songs and call it something different.

Matt- Yeah, it is all pretty much the same. Anxiety attacks, depression, and all out fucking hatred for capitalism, it’s all still there.

SO WHAT DO YOU TEND TO SING ABOUT?

Tom- I sing about social injustice and everyday life. Things that I understand and feel passionate about.

Dan- All the songs have mostly a social and political angle. About the frustrations and emotions involved with feeling hopeless about the state of the world today.

Matt- I mostly just sing about how cool we are and how Montana suffered a great loss when we left (laughs and chuckles). Oh, and politics are cool too, I guess. No, really, all our songs are political and personal. Living under an imperialist government that is killing innocent people is both a political and personal problem.

HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE NAME? WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Matt- It means the epitome of squalor (aka Dandar's nipples). I sort of made it up. Okay, so I did just make it up. But then we googled it and found that it was also the name given to this fucked up Antarctic fish that scientists have so far only found the skeletal remains of. This describes us pretty well, coming from the freezing and dismal state of Montana.

Dan- We had a list of a bunch of names we were thinking about and we all voted that we liked Squalora the most. It also kind of implies the hypothetical state of a species living in conditions of 'squalor' to me.

GOALS FOR THE BAND?

Tom- I dream of a day when we have a practice space and can get together more often… With our album just coming out, I'd like to see us doing more out of town shows and touring Europe next summer. Just keep on being pissed and keep on screaming in peoples faces.

Matt- Our goal is to put Sean (Defector Records) $2,000 in the hole... oh wait… check. We are going to Eastern Europe again next summer and this time we're not coming back, fuck you stupid americans! You can keep your silly 'croc' shoes and personalized license plates and yuppie coffee hangouts!

Dan- We want to play as many all ages punk shows in every basement and willing venue we can find, everywhere!

HOW DID YOU GET INTO PUNK AS INDIVIDUALS, AND HOW DOES PUNK AFFECT YOUR LIVES NOW, AND WHERE DOES SQUALORA FIT IN?

Tom- I was like so many other junior high kids. Just trying to fit in. I was playing baseball and hanging around older kids who thought they were gangsters or something and getting into stupid trouble. I'm embarrassed to think about some of the dumb shit that I participated in. Punk and skateboarding found me at the same time and I haven't looked back. I've learned so much through various DIY/punk communities and have been playing in bands for 10 years now, and it still gives me the same therapeutic feeling. I don't foresee myself not playing music or being active in this scene.

Dan- For me it all began in the early to mid nineties. My older brother Matt started playing drums with some friends, that turned into Disgruntled Nation and I started going to shows that they put on and played. One of my first punks shows was Schlong, the Banned from Missoula and Disgruntled Nation at a Masonic Temple in Whitefish, Mt. It was my first taste of the underground punk scene and I was instantly in love with it. My uncle used to store a drum set in our house when I was growing up, so I sort of learned to keep a beat and then I started playing drums for the Miscreants when I was 15. Ass-Offend formed after the Miscreants ended, and now Squalora. I've just always felt a need to be involved with the friendship, support, and connections we find in the radical DIY punk scene, worldwide.

Matt- Being a reject in a hick town (Fort Benton/ Loma/ Great Falls, MT) in the middle of nowhere and finding a Thrasher magazine (although they don't deserve a fucking ounce of credit for supporting the punk scene, oh don't get me started!). That pretty much sparked the events that have unfolded since. When I finally moved to Missoula, I found that I was not alone after all. There were some awesome bands at the time: The Banned, Humpy, Disgruntled Nation, Sasshole, and G.O.P. to name a few. Punk affect every aspect of our lives. It is the summation of everything important: freedom, individuality, equality, and friendship. It allows us to be ourselves without being ostracized. Squalora is sort of our manifestation of all this.

HOW DOES SQUALORA FIT IN WITH THE UNDERGROUND D.I.Y. PUNK SCENE AND/OR ANARCHIST-PUNK SCENE?

Matt- We are way into DIY. We screen print our own shirts and record covers, pretty much everything we can do ourselves, we will. And we are fucking maniacs hell-bent on destroying civilization, ha ha, what more can be said?

Dan- We love playing all-ages house shows and being a part of the "crucial-ness" that is punk rock, and everything associated with it.

WHY DID YOU MOVE TO PORTLAND AND HOW DO YOU LIKE LIVING HERE?

Matt- I am kicking myself for not moving sooner. All the people involved in the punk and activism scenes are so friendly and supportive of one another. The reason I moved though was that my daughter’s mother had moved up here and I couldn’t afford to make a lot of trips back and forth from Missoula so I finally decided to tag along. My daughter Kieran means the world to me so I can’t imagine not having her in my life. I needed to be in the same town. When I am not screenprinting or doing things regarding Squalora, I am hangin’ with the Kieranista.

Tom- I moved to Portland from Missoula in April of 2006. I really love it here and am the happiest I've ever been. When Ass- End Offend would play here, I would always want to just stay here. We met so many amazing people and played some real fun shows and I just felt like moving here would be better for me all around, and it has.

Dan- Portland was an obvious choice for me. I wanted to get out of Montana, and out of all the cities I've been through, Portland was the closest one that I really liked and I've always had fun here and liked what was going on so it made sense. I love it here. I can't imagine where else I'd be right now.

HOW IS PORTLAND'S PUNK SCENE DIFFERENT THAN MISSOULA'S?

Dan- It's just more immense, I guess. Missoula has a lot of cool things about it, but there is just so much more happening in Portland because of it's size and I wanted to be in a place where I could have better access to seeing bands I like more often.

Tom- Missoula is college town with a "rotating" scene. Just when things are really happening, they then crumble. Same story for any small town really. There are still some hard working folks there who are keeping the dream alive so to speak. There are great bands there who rock just as hard as any big-name-big-city bands. You have to when there is a limited audience and very few venues. Portland is at times, too busy for me. I can't afford to go to half of the shows I want. I've seen a lot of amazing bands here and there are so many good local bands.

ANYTHING YOU'D LIKE TO SEE CHANGED IN THE PORTLAND PUNK SCENE?

Tom- When I first moved here, so many people warned me how "cliquish" it is here. Sure, there are a million different little sub-groups with some nice people and some dicks. Whatever. I think the scene is encouraging and accessible. People should not take themselves so damned seriously and just branch outside of their little comfort zones. Quit just being a hardcore kid or whatever. Check out everything you can and participate anyway possible. I would like to see more zines. Thanks for doing The Defector still. Zines are punker than blogs!

Dan- As long as we call out the assholes that are making things shitty for people, and work together to make it what we want by communicating, I think things are pretty fucking awesome out here.

Matt- Yeah, every city has it’s problems but overall, I think Portland is fucking great and there is such a huge support system built into it. So many punks supporting each other’s causes. It’s awesome. I think the only thing I would want to see different is there should be less drugs. But I think that about every place I’ve been.

ANY FAVORITE LOCAL BANDS?

Matt- Here we go: Adelitas!, Massive Meat Split, Deterrorformed, Adelitas, Slam Dunk, Lazerblast, Resist, MDC, Warcorpse, Up Shit Creek (RIP), Anon Remora, Order of the Gash, Drunken Boat, Riot Cop, Forced March, all these bands play an integral part of making such a dynamic scene.

Tom- Shit! There are so many fucking rad bands here. Allow me to rattle off but a few more, eh: Nux Vomica, The Estranged, Tragedy, Sleepwalkers R.I.P., Super Bad, Red Fang, Black Elk, Criminal Damage, and many more that I can't think of right now.

Dan- Ah….so many to list, some of my fav’s are Nux, Adelitas, the Estranged, Drunken Boat, Criminal Damage, Deterrorformed, WarCry, Massive Meat Split, O.O.T.G, I'm just going to stop there, but there are many more.

INDIVIDUALLY GIVE ME YOUR DREAM PUNK SHOW, ANY BAND PAST OR PRESENT?

Dan- It would be a 3 day festival, people would come back from the dead, and I would probably be too drunk to remember any of it, and then I'd wake up.

Tom- Dream Show? Easy. Minutemen, Neurosis (Souls At Zero era), Gauze, The Gits, His Hero Is Gone, The Cars (yep!) with Mischief Brew opening!

Matt- My dream punk show already happened about 13 years ago: Bikini Kill & Fitz of Depression. Kathleen getting all irate in everyone’s faces, calling all those fucking trust fund jock bigots on their shit! I have not seen a better show since.

ANY FURTHER COMMENTS?

Dan- Thanks for the interview, See you all at the shows.

Tom- Thanks for the love!

Matt- Huge thanks to everyone who has made us feel welcome here in our new home! Especially a huge thanks to Defector Records, Wantage USA, and Repetitively Futile Records for all the help! Oh, and get involved with the Red & Anarchist Action Network! http://redanarchist.org …and special thanks to Kieran and Kristin and all our Montana friends who are now living here too!

CONTACT INFO.
www.poisonedcandy.com/squalora
Squalora, C/O Matt Svendsen, P.O. Box 3311, Portland, OR 97208